Long-suffering Evertonians have endured many sleepless nights in recent times but new signing James Tarkowski has been hailed as being “a warrior” who enables a manager to rest easy in his bed. That’s the verdict of Lee Johnson, the 29-year-old’s manager at his first club Oldham Athletic.
The last 42 of Tarkowski’s 89 appearances for the Latics came under the stewardship of Johnson before he sealed a transfer to Brentford on January 31, 2014. His ex-boss looks back on the defender’s formative years with him at Boundary Park fondly after the player’s big move to Goodison Park was announced this month. Taking time out from his pre-season preparations for a first campaign in the Scottish Premiership in charge of Hibernian, Johnson – who has also had spells at the helm of Barnsley, Bristol City and Sunderland – told the ECHO: “James was the golden boy of the Oldham Athletic academy at the time and our academy manager Tony Philiskirk believed in him massively.
“He took to being in the first team straight away, especially with the way I played, allowing centre-halves to take the space and being very comfortable on the ball and he was a good decision-maker with his passing. He had flaws, his feet were a bit heavy and he was a bit club-footed at times in terms of his movement but he wasn’t a man at that stage and your athletic profile changes over the years.
